catdaddyp

Offer to WR Levi Wentz of Albany.

Offer to DB Alex Mclaughlin of Northern Arizona.

Offer to DE Dawan Martin of Youngstown State.

Offer to DB Ed Rhambo of Bowling Green.

Offer to DB Dwight Lewis of NAIA Marion.

I bet it’ll be USF or another Florida school.

I’ve said in the past that Rivals has underrated a number of our prep players. They tend to grade (or downgrade) most of them to 2 stars. Interesting that Golden, Norton, Rush, James, Nunnally, and Moore are heading out the door as 3 stars.

Offer to DT Qwyn Williams from DII Ohio Dominican.

Back to back years we’ve offered Nick Reimer. Started 4 games at LT for Bowling Green, but only made it through 3 of them and took a redshirt.

Unfortunately, we aren’t going to land many OTs (if any) from the portal that have consistent production at this level. Those players will go somewhere where they get paid. Since we have no NIL presence, coach JRod has to rely on relationships and guys that possess the physical talent to be developed. So either P4/G5 backups looking for playing time or lower level guys that want to prove themselves at a higher level. Although, many of the proven lower level OTs will be swallowed up by programs with NIL. It’s not a coincidence most of the OTs that have been brought in through the portal have had some sort of injury history.

Offered OT Nikola Milovac from USF. We recruited him out of high school as well. Played limited snaps at both RG and RT during his time at USF.

I’d disagree about the 2025 signing class being underwhelming. I’d say it’s Moorhead’s best prep class to date. Moorhead’s prep classes are usually going to be in the range of 12-15 signees, which is significantly less than most other MAC programs. The majority of signings will come from the portal, where Moorhead has done extremely well (7 All-MAC players from the 2022 & 2023 classes alone). JUCO will also be utilized, but so far - outside of Nunnally, Fish, and Anderson (maybe Summers?) - we haven’t landed anyone from JUCO that has been more than depth. Here’s the 2025 MAC recruiting that includes portal departures.

Offer out to DII OT Patrick Methlie. Hurt in 2024, but was all-conference in 2023.

Good for Albin. He did an outstanding job with the portal this off-season. No one, including myself, saw this type of year coming for Ohio. Charlotte is in a hotbed for football talent and the school is heavily investing into their program. If I’m not mistaken, Charlotte’s overall athletic budget is about $10 mil more than Ohio’s. They are also in the midst of a $70 mil stadium expansion project.

Laurance Seymore in the portal after spending much of the season sidelined or limited.

Agreed. Obviously I’d prefer he stayed, but Granger and Polk ran with their opportunities. They’ll only get better. Mason and P. Davis will have their chance to step to the forefront as well.

Yep. He’ll get paid for sure. Good luck to him. He’s a kid that was unrated by the recruiting services and probably shouldn’t have ended up here in the first place.

I don’t know the answer to the All-MAC question. I do know we have a bunch of young talent waiting for their opportunity. It’s just unproven at this point. I’m anxious to see Finley with an offseason in Moorhead’s system. He could have a huge 2025.

Adrian Norton to the portal. Signed with an agent. He won’t be back.

The G5 offers are to bench players, with the exception of Burke from FIU. FIU recently fired their coach and I believe coach JRod recruited Burke to FIU. For the FCS offers, Anderson was a starter last year and Davis was a starter the year before. I went back and checked the 2022, 2023, and 2024 recruiting classes to see which MAC schools have been able to recruit OTs out of the portal that went on to become all-conference. There are only two: Desmond Bessent (San Diego State) for Buffalo in 2022 and Carson Heidecker (DII) for Ohio this year. Although, Heidecker spent most of conference play at OG. All-conference interior OL have been easier to come by. Looking at DT, there have also only been two all-conference players to come from the portal from the 2022, 2023, and 2024 recruiting classes. Skyler Gil-Howard (DII) for NIU this year and Ryan Buell (Colorado) last year. Basically, we need to develop all MAC talent at those positions from the HS level. Portal players can be solid and become starters (like Blanchard), but that’s about all we can realistically hope for. P4 schools are having similar types of issues at the same positions. Of course, some of those P4 schools have plenty of NIL $ to help their cause. We’ve now lost 3 potential all-conference players to the portal, or grades, at OT and DT - Landers (2022 class), James (2023 class), and Moore (2023 class).

Offer to OL Christian Anderson of Alabama A&M.

No, he’s out of eligibility. Been in college since 2019.

I don’t believe Moorhead is looking for a P4 HC this year. He surely knows that isn’t a viable option unless he turns Akron around. Moorhead has spoken glowingly about coaching in the SEC and I would imagine he’d like to have that opportunity again. My point to the OC conversation - and I’ve said this in the past - is that his name will be attached to a position every year regardless if he is interested or not. His success as a HC has no bearing on if he’s able to become an OC again. As far as the portal goes, I attempt to update the 2025 MAC thread on a daily basis. I’m a little behind right now due to signing day activity, but it’s more accurate than any of the recruiting sites, as none of them are ever 100% when it comes to MAC movement. Years 2023 and 2024 can also be viewed under the recruiting section. I’m not concerned with Moorhead’s portal recruiting. Yes, he’s had some misses, but so does every team. All-in-all he’s blown portal recruiting out the water while at Akron. What is encouraging is that his full classes have increasingly gotten better during his short tenure here.

I was just coming to post the link. No surprises on who made it. I was surprised that Norton and McCoy were not 1st team. I also didn’t think Nunnally would get voted 1st team. Shows how much respect he had from the conferences coaches. D.Lewis had a shot, but his play dropped off the last few games, whereas P. Lewis got better.

QB and both OL. I like all of the signings though. Small in number, but should be a really good class.